Florida Courthouse Escapee Denied Bond

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (CN) — Back in custody on Thursday after nearly a week on the lam, murder suspect and courthouse escapee Dayonte Resiles was unsurprisingly denied bond. Judge Michael Davis also ordered that Resiles, who was apprehended late Wednesday night at a West Palm Beach Days Inn, be kept isolated from all other prisoners within Broward County Jail and barred from communicating with anyone on the outside, except his attorneys. The 21-year-old faces eight felony counts including a murder charge, and seven accomplices have also been charged in aiding the escape. “No phone calls, no mail, no email,” Judge Davis said. “Nothing like that.” The additional restrictions were being imposed, the judge explained, because Resiles’ complex escape demonstrated him to be a resourceful individual with a helpful network of acquaintances. Appearing in court via closed-circuit TV and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, the recaptured prisoner argued with the judge. “I believe that it would be unconstitutional, as well as unfair, to restrain and restrict me from being able to converse and talk and meet with my immediate family,” Resiles said. “If I’m, like, mentally disturbed or going through anything, how would I be able to converse and talk with them?” The judge asked Resiles if he felt mentally disturbed. “I’m not saying I feel mentally disturbed, but not saying that I won’t be,” he answered. At that point, Davis ordered a mental health evaluation despite objections from Resiles’ attorney, Dohn Williams, who argued that the evaluation could become unfavorable evidence in the murder case. “The court is aiding and assisting the prosecution,” Williams said. Davis overruled the objection, explaining that an evaluation was necessary because Resiles might be a danger to himself. Certainly he had gone to great lengths to liberate himself from custody before. On the morning of July 15, on the fourth floor of the Broward County Courthouse, Resiles was scheduled for a hearing to determine whether he’d face the death penalty in the murder of Jill Halliburton Su, the grand niece of the founder of Halliburton oil company. During an apparent burglary attempt in 2014, Su was tied up and stabbed to death in her home in Davie Florida. Seated in a jury box, Resiles was handcuffed at the wrists, waist and ankles, according to an arrest affidavit. Two bailiffs told police that Resiles bent down, shook his restraints and eventually freed himself, then bolted from the courtroom. Although one bailiff grabbed the collar of Resiles’ jumpsuit, he was able to wriggle out of it and flee down a stairwell. When he got to the door, a getaway car and two accomplices were waiting — they had been signaled by another accomplice’s cough into a cellphone in the courtroom. Resiles plotted the escape during three-way telephone phone calls, and another inmate, Walter Hart III, helped him “defeat the shackling system,” according to police documents. In the car, Resiles received a change of clothes, and a cousin gave him a disguise that included a wig and colored contacts. Over the six days that Resiles was on the run, police nabbed his accomplices and increased a reward for information leading to his arrest from $20,000 to $50,000 dozens of tips poured in. Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives followed up on each tip and on Wednesday one of them led investigators to a Days Inn just off Interstate-95 in West Palm Beach. Resiles was staying there, in room 149. At around 10:30 p.m. he was ordered to come out, and he surrendered peacefully, police said. No one was injured in the escape or the recapture. Security has since been tightened at the courthouse. Sheriff’s deputies will now escort maximum-security inmates to any appearances in court. “Though this change requires significant logistical coordination, I am confident this change will make the courthouse safer and lessen the chance of inmate escape,” Broward Sheriff Israel said in a statement.